Bed Time

So I'm breaking my 12 o'clock bedtime rule (it's more like guidelines) but today was a good day, and a web post is a nice way to finish it. Right now I'm drinking kabo-cha, the delicious savory tea which mysteriously tastes exactly of very good chicken soup, and eating a small helping of two dried apricots, three prunes and some cashews off a very nice black triangular dish I bought the other day for a delightful 150 yen; the domesticity of all this produces really a very calming, tranquil effect for me; even though my apartment has devolved to a shambles from the relatively well-ordered pad it was only a few days ago, I've got a little corner of refined sanity to keep me stable. Sanity, thy name be dried apricots and tea.

Today was the first day of school for me, and although I did remember on an intellectual level how much I love my kids, I didn't remember how truly amazing and lovely and loving they all are. All they wanted to do today was play with me and dance with me and pick me up and get picked up by me and smile at me, and at the end of the day I was petitioned to walk about a million of them home; they were great in the games (a Pirates game and a song-and-dance with the 6th graders, a Hellos relay with the little little ones, a thump-the-desks rythm chanting game with the third graders, all as fun for them as for me, the mark of a good game). I was nearly overcome today with how wonderful they all are. They wanted to talk and talk to me, they wanted to have piggy-back rides, they wanted to teach me how to whistle like an owl...I just couldn't be luckier. Yay school! I was so apprehensive about returning, too! Yay for kids, the wonderfullest people ever. Here's a picture from a while ago, albiet of a different school than today's, but full of lovely little ones all the same. I'm actually in this picture if you can find me. It's like Where's Waldo, except with Josh. Where's Josh? He's in JAPAN.